So TiVo has quietly stopped selling lifetime subscriptions to their service;
a momentous event, to be sure! Clearly, TiVo has every right to take such
an amazing deal off the table, but they've certainly muddied the waters for
future DVR subscribers.
For one thing, it's no longer a slam-dunk when it comes to recommending TiVo
to friends. I've always told people that a cable/satellite DVR might be
cheaper in the short term, but when you factor in TiVo's feature set and
lifetime subscription, for the long term, they definitely want a TiVo. I
actually had this very conversation with a friend a week or so ago.
However, given her situation, I'm going to have to call her back and reverse
my recommendation. Money is an issue for her, and I don't think she will
care as much about the additional TiVo features as others do. She's also
kind of a technophobe and having an additional box to set up will probably
be less attractive than whatever her satellite company will set up for her.
Now I'm a Time-Warner cable subscriber, and this decision also makes the
future of my own DVR use uncertain. If I need to add an additional recorder
to my setup, I'll have to consider whether the additional features on the
new box are worth the "TiVo premium". Today, the best TiVo deal offered on
the web is a free 80GB box with a 3 year subscription for $469.00 (note:
this could be different tomorrow; it was certainly different yesterday). In
any case, if I were to buy a new box today, at best I'd be looking at
$20.03/month which breaks down as follows:
$469 / 36 months plus $7 per month for the additional cable box.
An additional cable DVR would be $12.95/month. So in my case, the "TiVo
premium" is $7.08/month. Is it worth it? Well given that I already have
TiVo, probably not. I wouldn't be able to transfer shows to a new cable
DVR, but with TiVo2Go on my old boxes and the ability to send shows to my
laptop or burn them to DVD, that's not such a big deal. As for the other
features like Wishlists, they would still be available on my old boxes. My
bottom line is that as long as I have at least one working TiVo in the
house, future additions will probably be cable DVRs.
Others will have to do the math for themselves to figure out their own "Tivo
premium" and then weigh TiVo's cool-features against DVR "features" like
"only one box", less setup and lower price.
Some on the TivoCommunity forums are ready to declare that TiVo has doomed
itself. I hope not, because they still make a great product with some
wonderful features. But I think it can be argued that the fanatical camp of
TiVo evangelists is about to get a lot less crowded.
Jim
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